This Is Fucking Vandalism, London’s History And Culture Are Being Destroyed In The Name Of Greed

Around 150 people joined a protest outside The Black Cap public house in Camden yesterday after it closed suddenly and without warning last week. The long running LGBT venue opened in the 1960s, surviving throughout the days when gay people faced prosecution. Now it is falling victim to rampant gentrification that respects neither culture or history and seeks only to make as much money as possible for greedy property developers.

Speaking at the protest drag artist Titti La Camp, a former performer at the pub, said 10 gay venues had closed in central London since the current Tory government weren’t elected. In an all too familiar story, those trying to save The Black Cap believe it is likely to be converted into yet more luxury flats that nobody local can afford.

A few hundred yards away a large part of Camden Market is currently a building site, awaiting being converted into a soulless offices along with 170 new homes of which only 17 will be affordable. The company behind the development is owned by billionaire Teddy Sagi, the man behind the explosion of fixed-odds betting terminals in bookies which have been called the crack cocaine of the gambling world. Sagi’s company also owns Stables Market in Camden and several other local sites which are earmarked for development.

Down the road in Berwick Street, Soho, a new development has led to the end of many long running local businesses like That’s Andy’s hardware shop which had existed for 20 years. Many more shops lie empty after being forced to close.

This is Walker’s Court at the end of Berwick Street. This narrow passageway was often photographed as an iconic example of Soho’s historic association with sex work. Now it is boarded up and awaiting development by Soho Estates, the company founded by the late Paul Raymond who made millions out of Soho’s sex trade. His grand-daughter, one of the UK’s richest women who sits on the board of Soho Estates, is now set to make millions out of the destruction of Soho’s sex work industry.Just around the corner from Walker’s Court the famous Madame Jojo’s cabaret and burlesque venue was closed down at the end of last year. The club was stripped of its licence after an alleged violent incident took place involving the club’s bouncers. Madame Jojo’s had replaced both the management and security team after the incident but this was not enough to satisfy Westminster Council. Those who used and loved the venue believe the real reason it was closed was the Council’s desire to gentrify the area.Less than 10 minutes walk away lies Denmark Street, better known as Tin Pan Alley, once the heart of the UK’s music industry and still a living, breathing community of musicians. Now it is being redeveloped into a “super-flexible, digitally-enabled streetscape” with posh flats, hotels, gigantic advertising boards, a ‘sky bar’ and a new piazza. The developers call it a run down corner of London. They should come to fucking Catford. Actually they shouldn’t, cunts like them are already coming to Catford. Some of the music shops have moved out of Denmark Street already.These signs appear on the empty properties along Denmark Street after Bohemians 4 Soho squatted the 12 Bar Club in a last ditch effort to save the famous music venue from closure. An army of bailiffs and security guards are now stationed in Central London protecting the property of the rich from the people who live here.This is what is replacing these much loved venues and famous landmarks. These loft apartments are on the former site of St Martin’s Art school, now re-located to King’s Cross. A two bedroom flat in this building will cost you £4.5 million. Of course it’s not just posh flats that are replacing our homes and community venues.London does not have a housing problem it has a rich people problem. The decimation of Soho and Camden is just one side of it. The other is the tragic evictions taking place everywhere from Barnet to Brixton and the record numbers of people sleeping on London’s streets.

Nobody wants this vandalism except for the grasping property developers, greedy landlords and global super rich who are turning every last brick in the city into an investment opportunity. They could not give a fuck about the people who live here – the people who built London and do the real work that makes it function. This is not a natural development of the city due to changing fashions and demographics. It is certainly not regeneration. It is a robbery. A city being reconstructed as Disneyland, where no real people can afford to live. It will be the death of London in the end. And the rich won’t care, they will be busy destroying somewhere else by then.

But there are fucking loads more of us than them. Struggles over housing and community venues are bursting into life everywhere. London has a long tradition of subversion, disobedience, rebellion and riots. The London mob must rise again. All of us, together, against the fucking rich.

120 responses to “This Is Fucking Vandalism, London’s History And Culture Are Being Destroyed In The Name Of Greed”

Reblogged this on londonsurvival and commented:
I was writing a piece about this same topic but this post covers all I had to say. Some of you may recall a couple of years ago we were fighting to save our local gay pub, steeped in history. That struggle came to an end last week. Another week brings another story of London being asset stripped for more luxury development, what makes London so great is quickly eroding away.

You might also consider that Blair and Brown’s governments did nothing to restrict the activities of bankers and developers during their 13 years’ custody of Britain – and Miliband won’t be able to either.

So, I have a choice, but two are completely out because they are the Nasty Party (Tory) or the Loony Party (UKIP) or the LibDems (who got into bed with the Tories) or the Labour Party, who aren’t quite as bad as all the rest…

I’m having horrible thoughts that I’ll have to hold my nose and vote tactically for Labour. It’ll be the first time I’ve ever voted Labour.

Sad to hear of the demise of the Black Cap..I also used to go there in the 1970/80’s…The days of Mrs Shufflewick, Regina Fong, The Trollettes, Lily Savage BEFORE she was famous..aaah..those were the days..even met my first boyfriend there..( RIP Keir ) Sad days for the LGBT Community!!

The media & politicians only bring up disability as a weapon to score media Vs politician points. The conflict of a political twitter death trap shows how low morals standards have become. The big problem whoever wins, is the conflict in interest in Maximus & aka ATOS Contracts that are until 2018.

ON THESE PAGES I WOULD LIKE TO CONGRATULATE JUDGE MARK ROWLAND FOR BEING THE IDEAL CHAMPION GLOVE PUPPET OF THIS GOVERNMENT FOR DISALLOWING A DISABLED PERSON THE RIGHT TO RAISE HUMAN RIGHTS, EQUALITY AND DISABILITY DISCRIMINATION AT THE UPPER TRIBUNAL………………

YOU ARE DOING A GRAND JOB, MARK.

KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK. YOU WILL OBVIOUSLY BE REWARDED AT SOME LATER DATE FOR YOUR ADHERENCE TO WHAT YOU HAVE BEEN INSTRUCTED TO ALLOW.

IN THE MEAN TIME, I HAVE SENT A COPY OF YOUR NOTICE OF DETERMINATION TO APPEAL, TO THE HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION, WHICH CLEARLY SHOWS THAT YOU ARE INTENT ON BLOCKING THE HUMAN RIGHTS OF THE DISABLED.

The government’s benefit cuts are hitting disabled people hardest of all, according to a new report drawn up by a coalition of over 90 disabled people’s organisations and charities. The report highlights the precarious circumstances of many disabled people, drawing on a survey of over 4,500 respondents and a poll of more than 350 independent welfare rights advisors.

Key findings
•Around 85 per cent of disabled people say losing their disability living allowance will drive them into isolation, and leave them struggling to manage their condition. 95 per cent fear it will damage their health.
•78 per cent say their health has got worse as a result of the stress caused by undergoing a work capability assessment for employment and support allowance.
•87 per cent of disabled people say their everyday living costs are significantly higher because of their condition.
•90 per cent of welfare rights advisors say too many disabled people are slipping through the net and are left without adequate support by the benefits system.

The report estimates that the 3.6 million people who claim disability benefits will be £9 billion worse off, in total, over the period 2010–2015. It calls on the government to rule out targeting disabled people for further spending cuts in the next Budget and Comprehensive Spending Review.

Indeed, but more to the point, what the fuck’s that got to do with the gentrification of London?! This site’s most dependent commenters appear to think it’s an exclusively disability-oriented site. (Well, everything’s about
YOU, isn’t it?) Perhaps it’s time for it to be re-branded, Johnny…

tim
you’ve said all this before and my reply then is that it’s up to you to post what you feel is relevant and interesting, on topicish…i won’t ignore you and your plea because it is so important that you do post imv…so get on and post….

Well that’s why I only post now and then; when I have something to say that is relevant (and, perchance, interesting, though that’s not for me to decide). But the tone of authority in your remark begs the question: are you Johnny Void in disguise???

I’d rather comments were kept on topic initially if possible, but appreciate people come here for more than just the information in the posts. I think if folk can try keep on topic whilst the post is still fresh that would be best, once its been up a couple of days or attracted a decent number of comments then if the discussion wanders somewhere else thats not so much of a problem.

You know I’m sure Sue said working with them will change how the treat sick and disabled people for the better. Well, what is she doing for her money? the treatment and assessments are more improperly run now than they ever were under Atos. What is she doing?

This is so sad. I used to go to Camden Town a lot, and loved the music shops, the fashions, the vibrant atmosphere, and just strolling around Camden Market and watching people. Everything that’s great and vibrant about London is being destroyed by these money grubbing property developers with their soulless office blocks and overpriced houses.

No sure when it happened but that gentrification is almost mirror image of the exclusivity that British (political) sub-culture has become – not inviting chaves and chavettes to the party has stalled and undermined sub-culture in the UK.

Sadly, this happens everywhere. Community Improvements. Better, brighter, new. That’s what people want. I find it terribly sad when we lose another bit of history to the wrecking ball of ‘progress’. And as for putting in new luxury homes: they specialize in that here in California.

I disagree that this is what people want. Soho became a very popular ‘arty’ place to live but then the rich people decided they wanted a piece of it and they moved in. Then they decided they didn’t like the noise, the sex trade and the clubs – all of the reasons it was so popular. So they made complaints about the noise and the clubs were warned, and then closed, and eventually destroyed. They will be replaced by sanitised versions of burlesque clubs and bars (the name Madame JoJo’s has been stolen and will be plastered on a new venue simply because it has gravitas, nothing to do with the original or JoJo herself). The rich will go there, the rest of us won’t because we have standards – and hearts.

They do what the hip and alternative people have always done – find an even more rundown and unwanted part of the city and turn it artsy and cool. Happened to Soho, to Shoreditch, to Stoke Newington, to Camden. But now they’ve all gone mainstream, find another that’s accessible and affordable, even if it’s not in Zone 1 …

Very good piece. This has always been my favourite part of London but I’ve seen its slow destruction over the last year. I live in the South West but Soho was my happy place, the place I went to when things seemed crap and I needed to sort my head out. A soulless heap of chrome, steel and glass won’t do that. Soho Estates are destroying what I love. What saddens me is that these greedy people don’t care about us, they just care about other rich people.
How long til Sister Ray, the centre of Record Store Day and its open air concert shuts its doors? Will people finally take notice then???

I am pig sick of these inhuman morons. To them, a house is no longer a home, it’s an investment opportunity and the consequences for ordinary people of their self serving exploitation are utterly devestating. I believe it’s way too late for anything other than direct action. When a body needs to die, cut it’s artery. How about a camping holiday on the M25.

Is a handful of hipsters and drag queens really ‘the people who built London’? You really are deluded, mate …

This is a simple matter of a gay pub/cruising market that has been lost to the internet, and an entertainment form that’s as dead as vaudeville.

So the owner (Steve Fox of Faucet Inn Ltd – a “family company” according to their website who also owns Comptons and a dozen other non-gay pubs) needs to sell up and stop losing money month after month. It’s not a charity operation, or a public utility.

If you care to preserve this scrofulous no-disabled-access pub with its stinking toilets and sticky carpets, club together and buy it. Why does it always have to be ‘someone else’ who funds our hobbies?

Or better still, build a gay performing and entertainment venue with seating, sightlines and a sound system that doesn’t turn every joke or song into a railway announcement, somewhere else gays actually hang out, like Vauxhall?

Last year the Cap was the 2nd most successful in the Faucet chain, in no small part down to meeting the changing scene and catering to a younger crowd bringing in fresh alternative drag, it still never changed it’s focus upstairs but the club downstairs had changed and with it bought success. But no pub will ever match the return on property with the London market is spiralling out of control. But property few of us can afford to live in, what;s the point in a city that doesn’t cater for it’s residents. Clubbing together is an option to be explored, with the ACV in place it will likely hinder the owners plans for the building.

Hooray – more luxury flats and another McDonald’s, said nobody in London, ever. With the number of ‘affordable’ flats in these developments falling by the minute, just how many rich people need to live in London? Seriously? There just can’t be that many of them in the world for the amount of housing that’s available to them. My corner of London has always been affluent but the amount of new luxury housing going up in the Borough is surely out of all proportion to the numbers who can afford or want it.

Meanwhile, the social cleansing of London carries on at an alarming rate, helped by councils doing cash deals with the developers so they don’t have to provide a social housing element within these schemes.

I would like a financial audit of the personal bank accounts of all councillors in London Boroughs that deal with planning permission: I am certain there is a whole world of back-handers, funny handshakes and money flying out of the country. There can be no other sensible reason why so little social housing is built while so much luxury housing has flooded the market.

The Vauxhall tavern is going also the market taverns been demolished ,the nelsons head,the carpenters arms ,busbys the colhern,bromptons,the list is endless Vauxhall is being redeveloped there all going madamm jojo,s I can’t think of anything eles to wright ..I’m speechless this is unending.

Until the 1890s, the main overnight accommodation options for down-and-outs in London were the various doss-houses, hostels and charity refuges, or the workhouse casual wards which were free but demanded a stint of manual labour in return for their very basic food and shelter. A final alternative, to which many resorted, was sleeping rough on the Embankment or on the bridges over the Thames.

In 1892, a new type of accommodation appeared — the first of the “Rowton Houses” created by politician and philanthropist Lord Rowton (otherwise known as Montagu William Lowry Corry, or Monty Corry to his friends), a former private secretary to Benjamin Disraeli. In 1890, Rowton was involved in setting up the Guiness Trust which aimed to provide low-cost accommodation for working people in London and Dublin. As part of this project, he undertook a survey of the all the types of accommodation that existed in London’s East End, including common lodging houses. As a result of this experience, Rowton decided to set up a new type of working men’s hostel to give men a better, cleaner place to live. He put up the then enormous sum of £30,000 of his own money to finance the scheme. The hostel, with 470 bedded “cubicles”, opened on 31st December 1892 at Bond Street (now Bondway) in Vauxhall.

But what are we progressing to? And also you can digress backwards. Its all for the few and sod the many. It won’t last long as the Rich get fewer and fewer, the poor gets more and more there comes a tipping point in balance.

Disability & poverty [Disability Poverty] is not a political issue, it is a Human Rights issue. Just look at how the uk helps the rest of the world with poverty budgets. Disability holds the key. When the well runs dry the middle classes will be next. Politics bottom of the class. Also bad grammar & lots of red marks.

As a lifelong Londoner, this sickens me. All of the unique character of London wiped out and replaced with a wealthy ghetto. We might as well be living in Dubai with all the high rises, malls and closed enclaves. London is a unique place, a city that grew organically, but now it’ll be an identikit city full of empty apartments belonging to overseas billionaires.

This is happening allover the world from brocklyns lowereastsider to farmers in outer Mongolia the rich takeing over and socialy cleansing the poor,it seems the rich are fleeing something that’s comeing and they want the citys as there safe enclaves.

London is the world’s get rich quick scheme. Something you can’t vote away either. The flip side of this tragedy can be seen outside London, where grade 1 and 2 listed buildings – in Glasgow, Leeds, Liverpool etc. – are being left to rot, crumble and cave in for lack of investment. The unevenness of things is destroying everything that’s good.

Reblogged this on Beastrabban’s Weblog and commented:
Johnny Void here gives his characteristic personal point of view attacking the destructive gentrification which is tearing the heart out of London’s genuinely bohemian centres. These include the Black Cap pub, a historic gay pub; part of Camden market; the centre of Soho’s red light district; Tin Pan Alley and St. Martin’s art school, which is relocating away from the area to King’s Cross.

I’ve nothing against the closure of Soho’s strip joints and burlesque bars myself. They are seedy, and when the strip joints in Park Street in Bristol closed down and moved away in the 1980s, in my opinion the quality of the area improved and became a much more inviting place. But Soho’s red light district is a distinctive and historic part of London, as Mr Void says. It attracts the tourists, in the same way that Amsterdam’s red light district does, and has become the quintessential symbol of the seedy glamour of the metropolis. You think of the Harry Enfield sketch where the Scousers go down to That London. That sketch included a section where one of the comedy Scousers goes into a Soho strip joint. This part of the sketch shows various movie stars and celebs, like Michael Caine in their swinging sixties glory surrounded by crowds of paps, trooping about the district.

Homosexuality is still immensely controversial, even nearly fifty years after its legalisation in Britain. Yet the Black Cap pub, like a lot of gay venues, was also a real part of Britain’s submerged heritage, ignored or suppressed by the official, dominant culture. In its way, it’s another historic venue, around which a living community grew up and socialised. A community which is being wrecked by the development.

The closure and gutting of Tin Pan Alley has become something of a national scandal. One of Britain’s leading rock dinosaurs from the 1970s appeared a year or so on the Beeb’s One Show to raise awareness of it and protest against it.

As for St. Martin’s School of Art, just so many of Britain’s leading 20th century artists seem to have gone there that sometimes you wonder if there’s anyone in the art or film industries, who didn’t.

And Mr Void’s mention of the local hardware store being forced to close is a reminder that it isn’t just the big, glamorous parts of London’s countercultural history that’s being hit, but also the community stores and businesses that actually sell ordinary people items they want and need.

This process isn’t just going on in London. It’s all over the south of England to a greater or lesser extent. It’s going on in the Lower High Street in Cheltenham, where ordinary businesses are being closed down to be replaced by luxury developing, including non-affordable flats. The poor, the marginal and the oppositional, or just the severely normal, are being forced out of their homes and businesses in order to satisfy the rapacity of the rich.

I lived in St Giles High St for a few years and loved living there, but to be fair it is a shithole and an embarrassment to our capital city, which along with vast parts of our out of date tube system, make competing with an increasing growing global economy for worldwide tourism a slow plod! London needs investment in order to grow and move forward with changing times. It needed to be cleaned up many years ago. It is long overdue some investment. London is dirty and tired looking in to many areas. We should be proud that we (London) are in a position to raise this investment and watch our country change for the future and change for the better. I am.

I walked through Soho a couple of years ago. I was shocked by how much it had changed, barely recognisable.

Food For Thought in Covent Garden, one of the best places to eat in London, closing down on 1 June 2015 after forty years, driven out by extortionate rent.

Across London, we are seeing social cleansing taking place, people kicked out of their homes, entire estates demolished, to be replaced by luxury apartments. Luxury apartments for sale to speculators in China, Russia and the Middle East.

In Farnborough, c 1720s The Tumbledown Dick destroyed for a Drive-Thru McDonald’s. Planning officials lied, councillors did a secret behind closed doors deal with McDonald’s, the planning committee rubber-stamped what was put before them, one councillor has been gloating ever since.

Pubs across the county are being destroyed.

People are fighting back. They are taking direct action, having lost all faith in corrupt local councils.

Face it! Camden is a disgusting shit-hole full of dogs on string losers selling tat on market stalls and awful pubs trying too hard to be hip. It has had it’s time in the sun. Soho is even worse – filthy, stinking and overpriced, attempting to hang on to the past. Bulldoze the lot and welcome the new!

It may stink, I do not know only ever been in London once, it may be old and with time it may acquired filth or not. But that is beside the point, because it is old and been there some time it has acquired, along with he dirt, a living breathing community that once destroyed will never come back, you want bright and shiny and new; but that comes at a price. it will be a place without a soul, it will be empty and meaningless money pit where people go to flaunt their ever rising bank accounts, the endless empty quest to get more and more money. I’d rather live next to a community.

Not to be devils advocate here, but isn’t the reason that many of these venues closed down (with the exception of Madame jojos) that actually the pubs/shops weren’t frequented enough by patrons and therefore didn’t make enough money to be a viable business?
Now regardless of your stance on big business,and as an avid supporter of independant trading, surely it’s better an empty building be bought by a conglomerate and turned in to a profitable venue than just left to rot?
As much as people don’t like to admit it, people seem very quick to judge big business for “taking over” yet don’t use independent shops and pubs as they’re too expensive,then if the property remains unused sit around and bitch that there’s too many empty buildings in their neighbourhood. you can’t have it both ways,support your local independant traders or just get used to the idea of tesco everywhere.
While we’re at it, as a labour supporter I personally cannot wait to see the back of the conservatives, however if you actually look in to it many of their current standing policies have given loans and or tax cuts to enable independent traders to buy properties and start a business. Under the current reform a first time buyer for private or business purposes can receive up to 25 percent of their funding for said properties without having to pay it back.the problem comes when people would rather get a pint or a pack of bananas for 20p less and so go to the big brand pubs/shops.
I suppose the point I’m making is that it’s time for people to take accountability for themselves, not everything is the corporations or government screwing you over, a society reflects the people’s behaviour in it, not the top 2 percent. It’s just easier and less harrowing to pretend it’s someone else’s fault.

Don’t forget though that a large reason bars and clubs aren’t as popular as they once were is due a) to high levels of unemployment/good wages and thus less disposable income, as well as less free time, and b) to the smoking ban. Both of these were spearheaded by New Labour and continued by the following governments.

couple of well placed petrol bombs just before they open is the best way to handle these new developments. maximum financial blow to investors, huge statement of intent to future property devil-opers. will someone step up before it’s too late?

This is a tragedy, a work of the greedy. Famous landmarks being knocked down or neglected in the name of profit. Tin Pan Alley, as you say, the heart and soul of the British music industry should be recognised for what it was not left to rot or destroyed.

I feel for you on this one, I really do. Why? Because this is what people have been doing to Cornwall for decades. And no ones given a shit because they have nice holiday homes to go to by the sea. My family home – the one I’ve grown up in and loved with all my heart – is unfortunately right next to the set of Poldark. Heeeeellloooo to my cunt landlord seeing £ signs and hello to potentially being kicked out with little notice to turn the home I’ve loved into a holiday house. Entire villages here have been decimated by holiday home industries.
My point? I really do feel for you on this one. Rich people are cunts. Pure fucking cunts.

Robert ‘wears two watches’ Peston was on the wireless gloating about his ‘holiday home in the Highlands of Scotland’. Lucky him and all that, the Highlands of Scotland are fantastic but this holiday homes industry is decimated the indigenous population. Incidentally, you can see the money these fuckers have as they fly up and down the Lochs in these ‘water-planes’ they have to get to and from the fancy restaurants. Lucky them and al that but I fear for the likes of McKilt, McHaggis, McSporran and the rest of the Highland clans who will eventually driven from their native environment to make way for these ‘incomers’

My heart agrees with all of this, but its often the owners who sell out. As Londoners we have the responsibility to support in the great places that keep our culture alive at the fringes , and the much more important responsibility of reinventing that culture as we have done through waves of gentrification and legislation, Don’t be sad it’s gone. Celebrate it happened and make sure what happens next is even better. Our city is ours – let’s reinvent it , so the developers have to chase us , not the other way around.

They are able to do this because the London population has been totally replaced by people from abroad who have no sentimental or cultural connection to the city. First the mass immigration, then the rape of the city by the developers and their crony politicians. If you want to know what’s really going on, look at what ex-RAF engineer and ex-mining-company engineer Gordon Bowden is saying about hundreds of thousands of fraudulent ‘shell’ companies in London, operated by ‘the great and the good’ of the country, asset-stripping trillions from the wealth of the nation over the last forty years or so.

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